This biography of composer and pianist Felix Mendelssohn traces his development from musical child prodigy to a conductor whose influence as an advocate of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven is still felt to this day. A great deal of attention is paid to Mendelssohn's early nineteenth-century cultural surroundings and the book includes interpretation and discussion of major works, without use of musical examples or technical language, placing them within the context of his personal and public life. This is the first new biography of Mendelssohn to appear in some seventeen years.